Wichita eagle., 1887-05-20
ASCENSION SERVICE.

Last evening the Knights Templar held
| ascension day service at the St Johns ehurcn
| with very appropriate ceremonies. The
| Knights entered the church in the following
order:
Cross bearer: sir knights, by twos, with
| banner: standard bearer with beansant off
GERS of the commande1y; officiating clergy.
The sir knights entered uncovered, and
the clergy had passed through the lines took
| their position in the pews, at signal from
the Captain General Sir knight Findlay Ross,
they remained standing at uncover.
The service opened with hymn, Coward
Christian Soldier" sung by the sir knights
and congregation, followed by the customary
devotional exercises, and after the sermon by
Rev. Adams and benediction, the occasional
hymn was sung while the knights passed
out, accompanied by Their ladies. Outside
| they formed in marching line and proceeded
| to the Masonic hall, from which place. de-
laying a few minutes, they visited the Idle
wild restaurant, where an elegant repast was
prepared for the occasion. The knights and
ladies having spent a social time there, de-
parted at a late hour to their respective
abOdes.
The choir was composed of B. B. Hull,
Free Howe and Misses Earl and Hall.
The following is the sermon delivered to
the Sir Knights by Rev. Adams:
Sir Knights:-In speaking to you tonight
many remembrances come one-When you
were organized-why you were organized.
Your order is almost seven hundred years
old. That space of time teens with tremen-
dous events. One of the most important
is the reformation. In that horizon OF
history we see giants. They handed down to
us many things of importance. They re-
jected others Of as great Importance be-
cause they thought them contaminated by
Rome. One of these is the calander-the
church year-with its holy days. Not
many weeks since, on Good Friday,
we were here together-with draped altar
agony, bearing one cry, my God, Ny God,
Why hast thou forsaken mer Then we
shed tears On Easter Sunday we met each
other with joyful ''The Lord is risen" and
the rerponse: rs risen indeed" On this
ascension day we look into the heavens and
see the ascending Lord.
Seven centuries is great space OF time.
Nineteen hundred years is a still greater
space. Seven centuries ago your order was
organized. Nineteen hundred years
ago the Christ organized the
church in the interest of which your order
came into existance. More of knights
Templarship farther on. Now about the
church, which is external christianity; and
in view of your order-in view of the ascend
in Christ, remembering the forty days be-
tween the resurrection and the ascension
what theme could be more appropriate than
external christianity!
That you may take passage of scripture
away with you, will read you as my text,
the first verse of the 45th chapter of
the gospel, according to st. John:
81 am the true vine and my father is the
huSbandman."
The first thing necessary to the growth of
a vine is life What is the life of christian
ity? That life which was in the Christ-loye.
Then comes the plan which appears in
physical FORM To illustrate, there is an in
ternal Knights Templar ship; but wouldyo
be Knights Templar had you not been mi
tiated by certain rights and ceremonies!
Would people know you to be such were it
not for your regaIia! The vine has mate
rial form by which it is distinguished from
all other vegetable growths.
The Knights Templar has certain marks
or a certain form which distinguishes the Or
der from all other orders. The same is true
of the church. Could any ore of you so out
and start new Knights Templar orders
You say, no. Then could go out and form
a new church! 1t would not be the church.
1t would be something else.
That :ire vine may bear perfect fruit some
thing else is necessary,-the husbandman,
the vine. must be cultivated. Wild grapes
are not so good as tame or cultivated ones.
The husbandman first prepares the soil
The great husbandman sent Julius Caesar to
conquer universal peace, that there might
be planting of the vine which is 10 fill the
world
The husbandman works through instru-
mentalities. With his knife he plunes the
vine. So early did God prune the church
Rome becoming arrogant the other great
patriarchates, such as Jerusalem and Alex
andria, cut her off. The fork becoming
too tight upon the vine the husbandnan
wounds it that it may bleed. At the reform
alton God did the same, and the church
bleeds to-day But there is evidence that a
healing sets in. The incoming to the church
of the good and honest from sectarianism,
who see their mistake, grows greater and
greater.
Then that the vine may grow stronger
and bear larger and better fruit, the nus
bandman with axe and scythe must remove
the overgrowth about, which saps the growth
and keeps off the sun and she rain
and the air. So God sent Peter the Hermit
to preach the crusade. The kings the mobiles
and the knights heard the cry, and they
rushed to reclaim the sepulcher. The nine
knights who founded your order, Sir Knights,
founded it to defend the holy sepulcher and
protect those who would form about and in
1.-THE christian pilgrims from all quarters
of the world. The sepulcher is open to us
now. For what does it stand to us! Immor-
tality, christianity. the church, hberty-the
breadth, the height, the depth of truth.
You stand for the defence of the sepulcher
as much as did your founder. l was glad
when the DRAW and present swords" came
from your commander at the repeating of
the apostles creed-wbich comes to us clean,
washed from the remotest time in the his
tory of the church. Stand for it. Make
more of tin the richness of its cathohcity
and the church which Is builded about it.
She is our hope.